Bad dye job on outdoor furniture. DIY FAIL. HELP!

Ok, I will acknowledge that I made mistake. The canopy from my patio furniture was dirty beyond repair, so I attempted to dye it a taupe color. Horrendous mistake. It came out looking purple, and it did not dye evenly. I’m started to fear it’s ruined, and it’s not even a year old. any ideas on how to fix this mistake?

zoraneale : I’m assuming it’s fabric? If so the base color plays into it in big part- think of it as if you were mixing two colors (ie if your canopy is yellow & you tried to dye it blue it would -prob- end up greenish). Another issue could be the type of fabric, certains dyes are made for certain types of fabrics- and some fabrics just don’t hold dye well (probably why it came out uneven)… Bleaching it will most def. not work- you’ll just end up with bleach spots allover it not a solid white. Only thing that might work that I could think of would be to use fabric paint on it or if it’s removable take it off & replace it with new outdoor fabric from JO-Ann’s…

zoraneale : I did this once.. same mistake (upholstery for dining set).. I bought new fabric and re-upholstered the chairs. for me it was worth it, they ended up looking great.. but a canopy may be more difficult

A picture would definitely help, but it is probably a lost cause. Outdoor fabrics almost all have some kind of waterproofing on them, so it’s not going to dye well even if you follow all the instructions. If you dyed with hot water, that’s strike two, as that will break down the waterproofing and now any water is just going to soak into the fabric rather than rolling off. And last, did you use Rit dye from a craft store? It is notorious bad if you are looking for an exact color, but it is also not formulated to work with pretty much all fabric blends. Outdoor fabrics are make of a lot, if not all, polyester – essentially plastic strands that do not absorb dye like natural fabrics. You need to get special dye for it.

Your best bet is to re-dye in a darker color with something like iDyePoly, then spray with a waterproofing.